This disclosure generally relates to beverage servers and assemblies for retaining drip trays or grates associated with a beverage server assembly.
A variety of prior art devices have been developed to support a container for retaining a volume of beverage in a position elevated from a work surface so as to facilitate placement of a cup underneath a dispensing faucet attached to the container. Such beverage dispensing server assemblies have been useful in allowing a beverage to be brewed, retained, and removed to a location remote from the brewer. For example, the server can be positioned relative to a beverage brewing device or other dispensing device to receive the beverage therein. In an example with a heated beverage, the container can be formed of a dual wall thermal structure or any other of a variety of thermally insulating containers. The beverage dispensed into the container can then be moved to another location such as a serving station.
In restaurants or other food service settings, it may be desirable to position server assemblies at satellite locations to allow the consumer to have easy access to these servers. Additionally, in a coffee house or restaurant environment, it may be desirable to brew several different flavors or types of coffee or tea and retain the coffee or tea in thermal servers for subsequent dispensing. This allows a single brewer to provide multiple batches of beverage over a period of time and retention of those beverages for later dispensing.
As noted above, it may be desirable to position the faucet at an elevated position so that the cup may be placed under the faucet for dispensing. A variety of prior art drip tray assemblies have been developed to collect beverage which might spill or to collect drips which may occur after the cup is removed. For example, at the end of a dispensing period, the user may not cleanly terminate the use of the faucet and a drip may occur. Additionally, over time, faucet components may wear and the faucet may leak and drip. As such, it is desirable to provide a tray which will collect such drips. The prior art drip trays have included trays which are directly and permanently attached to servers, trays which include sponges, and other trays which might be removable.
Prior to the development of the present design, it is not known that any tray assembly has been developed as taught by the disclosure herein. The disclosed server and drip tray assembly provide structures and functions which improve upon the prior art to provide enhanced functionality.
The exemplification in the disclosure illustrates embodiments that are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner. Additional features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the disclosure as presently perceived.